Good novels are not popular. How do we fix that?

xiouyu · February 17,2025

Funny story: I told a translator that his novel wasn't earning enough revenue ad revenue and he thought I was cheating him. He quit, joined a new website and he made an announcement about not earning enough ad revenue....

A good novel is subjective and that isn't the point of this thread.
The point is that good novels are not popular. I translated Song of the Clouds years back and got zero views.
I translated one loli butt novel and got lots of views.
So how do we make good novels popular so they don't get dropped by translators?
Personally, I would think writing blog articles about them would be effective is drumming up interest.
One of the reasons, I started Wujigege.com

Let's use this novel as an example : My Castle , My Castellan.
How would you make the novel more popular?

I think that at the end of the day. Translators have to choose between translating novels for literary critics or the average reader

TwistedTsunami · February 18,2025

Mistickiller · February 18,2025

3 ways I would argue.

An already known translator group / site, with a good track recordThe novel if not being somewhat unique, atleast actually sounds like it's partially uniqueMentioning it in other places , like if instead of the releases linking directly to the chapter have some translator comments or whatnot, they mention the novels there, or announcements on the sites.Basically, if it doesn't stand out, people will go 'Oh, another one ?'

nocheats · February 18,2025

basically shameless advertisement

it hard being PR member these day you know~

Christopher_Frost7 · February 18,2025

Then bring them up in your arguments instead of always half-assing your threads.
Though I guess this is more of a self-promotion thread isn't it?, you don't even bring up a reason why the promoted novel would fit this argument.

aceZ0 · February 18,2025

Sex sells in almost any context. Follow that rule and it all becomes simpler.

ChiyoKobayashi · February 18,2025

Ai-chan read that as "no need to spank me". Loli butt indeed.

Ai-chan doesn't think @Wujigege can be any less shameless than he already is. Ai-chan can assure you that Wujigege has been very shameless and obnoxious to the point that Ai-chan stopped posting in his threads because it made Ai-chan looked like Ai-chan had nothing better to do.

Mickey1207 · February 18,2025

The other day, someone gave a rating of 3 on a review for a novel I've been translating, saying that the synopsis didn't make sense, even though it was clearly explained within the very first chapter of the novel.
I mean, okay?

Gorloww · February 18,2025

change the way you do titles, use the japonese mastered techinque of explanation title with a mix of buzzfeed clickbait:

example:

"sex, slaves and the right wing party...... now that i have your attention here is my unique twist to a generic isekai"

KiritoSenpai9138 · February 18,2025

So basically your sole example of a "good novel that isn't popular" is your experience with translating just a single missing chapter that you split in 3 parts?, years after the rest of the story had been translated?
Not necessarily saying the argument is wrong, but you are using a pretty disingenuous example for it.

Stivanstin · February 18,2025

Hahaha, I am scared of your posts. I am still scarred by your tentacle rape post.
Funny enough, I am not promoting My Castle, My Castellan.
I am translating the novel for me to read personally, it doesnt matter if there are zero readers.
My point is that good stories are not necessarily popular and wont pay the bills.
It is just reality.
PS My Caste My Castellan is getting translated for me for "free". So it doesnt matter if its popular

bravus69 · February 18,2025

Kinda the same problem for budding authors.

Do you continue because you enjoy it, or do you continue in order to try and make money?

And if you want to make money, you need to either appeal to readers instead of writing what you want, or make something so amazing that people will want to read it. It is hard.

Hubby_000 · February 18,2025

Shameless advertisement +1
Not only on a blog post, but here on nuf and even in the release page or foot of another popular novel on your site.
You have to make something to make the topic hot and to let it stay hot by bring it up again and again.
There's also a need for you to let a detailed review here on nu and on your site about the novel, since some people actually don't go just by the synopsis but by the review which might make people delay or even avoid reading afraid of wasting their time reading shit.

Also, where's the link for that old novel?